Kaufman Foundation Awards $2 Million for Fundamental Scientific Research at Pennsylvania Institutions
Funding will support seasoned and early-career scientists while also engaging undergraduate students in research.
PITTSBURGH, oct. 28, 2026 – The Charles E. Kaufman Foundation has announced $2 million in grants for faculty at Pennsylvania institutions conducting innovative, fundamental scientific research in the fields of biology, chemistry and physics.
The Charles E. Kaufman Foundation provides research funding through three programs: New Investigator grants for independent, early-career scientists; New Initiative grants for new research collaborations between established investigators; and Integrated Research-Education Grants (IREG) for institutions to provide undergraduate students with opportunities to engage with investigators in novel research.
This year, the Charles E. Kaufman Foundation Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) reviewed 187 letters of intent from scientists at 23 institutions of higher education in Pennsylvania for the New Investigator and New Initiative awards. IREG is an invite-only program and received submissions from 26 institutions. The Charles E. Kaufman Foundation awarded four New Investigator awards, four New Initiative awards and two Integrated Research-Education Grants (IREG) awards. The awards support research across Pennsylvania at Lehigh University, Seton Hill University, The Pennsylvania State University, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Pittsburgh and West Chester University of Pennsylvania.
New Investigator grants support innovative scientists in Pennsylvania as they begin their careers as newly independent investigators. The funding empowers early career scientists to address fundamental questions through novel approaches with the potential for generating transformative intellectual advances. Four New Investigator grants of $150,000 over two years were awarded to:
Wesley Transue, Ph.D., principal investigator and assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh, for “The Hunt for Phi Interactions: Magneto-Optical Insight into f Orbital Splittings.” This novel research seeks to utilize specialized “magneto-optical” techniques to make the first direct measurement of a phi (φ) bond. Phi bonds are a complex type of chemical bond, the links that join atoms into molecules, that have not been experimentally detected like other types of chemical bonds (σ, π, δ). Phi bonds are so intricate they can only be built from a special, many-lobed kind of electron cloud called an “f orbital,” found only in a handful of the heaviest elements on the periodic table. Dr. Transue will utilize uranium compounds, one of the only materials capable of forming this elusive bond. If successful, this research will increase our fundamental understanding of how atoms connect and have implications in disposing of radioactive waste as well as the development of materials needed to power quantum computers. The SAB felt this proposal addresses a truly fundamental question about chemical bonds and felt that Dr. Transue’s expertise in synthetic chemistry and physical chemistry positions this proposal well for success.
Tomas Gonzalez Fernandez, Ph.D., principal investigator and assistant professor in the Department of Bioengineering at Lehigh University, for “Understanding the Impact of DNA Methylation in Stem Cell Fate and Aging.” This research aims to investigate a fundamental biological question: how does DNA methylation regulate stem cell phenotypes during differentiation and aging? DNA methylation is a mechanism used to switch genes on and off, and in stem and progenitor cells, DNA methylation drives stem cell aging. How this regulation works is not well studied because the human genome contains roughly 28 million sites where methylation can occur. This proposal combines computational and experimental design, first developing a deep learning framework to pinpoint where methylation is most likely to drive stem cell fate and then validating those findings using CRISPR-based methylation editors to add or remove methylation at specific locations. This research has the potential to advance our understanding of epigenetic regulation. The SAB noted that the proposal addressed a core problem in the field of cell and developmental biology and felt confident that the preliminary data strongly supported the outlined aims.
Kay Carter-Fenk, Ph.D., principal investigator and assistant professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Pittsburgh, for “Democratizing Multiconfigurational Quantum Chemistry: A Simple, Powerful Foundation for Molecular Magnetism and Spintronics.” This research seeks to provide a solution for obtaining accurate approximate solutions to the molecular Schrödinger equation at no added computational cost. Solutions to the Schrödinger equation encode every chemical and material property of a chemical, meaning calculating a solution requires accounting for every possible arrangement of electrons in a molecule or material. This means storing the exact solution for a single iron atom would require a planet-sized hard drive. Dr. Carter-Fenk’s proposal outlines a strategy to compress information about all these arrangements in molecules up to a thousand atoms into a single three-dimensional quantity that could be stored on an ordinary computer. This solution relies on the unusual idea that the distribution of electrons around a molecule (the electron cloud) is allowed to partially exist in the space of imaginary numbers, and unlike other compression strategies, this solution would preserve information about a system’s magnetism. This research has potential implications in the advancement of magnetic sensors and spintronic devices needed for next-generation quantum materials. The SAB expressed confidence that this research will not only significantly advance quantum chemistry but will also have a strong impact on a wide berth of scientific topics.
Carlos Blanco, Ph.D., principal investigator and assistant professor in the Department of Physics at The Pennsylvania State University, for “Directional Molecular Crystals for Low-Background Sub-GeV Dark Matter.” This research seeks to discover materials purpose-made to detect dark matter directly, by implementing a molecular design loop from first-principles theory to laboratory validation. This is important because dark matter comprises 85% of all the matter in the universe, yet uncovering its nature remains a central problem in physics and cosmology. Currently, dark matter signals are drowned out by irreducible noise in the most sensitive experiments. However, Dr. Blanco’s group discovered that crystals built from organic, meaning carbon-based, molecules offer a way to see through this noise in order to probe these light dark matter candidates. The proposal endeavors to use machine learning to design molecules with the strongest and most direction-sensitive response and validate the leading candidates with polarized-light spectroscopy. Dr. Blanco’s team pioneered this approach and collaborated with partners at MIT and Fermilab to build a prototype of the crystal identified by the team’s theory. If successful, this research will establish molecular crystals as a directional, low-background frontier in the search for dark matter while advancing molecular design tools with applications ranging from quantum sensing to solar energy harvesting. Overall, the SAB felt this proposed project stood out because it is original, ambitious, and fundamental in nature.
New Initiative grants support the collaboration of investigators with strong research records to develop interdisciplinary, novel approaches to address fundamental scientific questions that require expertise beyond that of any single researcher. Four New Initiative grants of $300,000 over two years were awarded to:
Vaughn Cooper, Ph.D., principal investigator and professor in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh, and Tera Levin, Ph.D., co-investigator and assistant professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh, for “How Bacteria Survive Eukaryotic Predation.” This research aims to better understand the mutations and strategies that let bacteria escape, repel, or outlast being eaten, and how well each defense works. Bacteria in soil and water have been hunted by single-celled amoebae for over a billion years; however, little is known about how some bacteria survive because bacterial genetics has largely been studied without predators present. The researchers propose growing populations of a common soil bacterium that is related to opportunistic pathogens, Pseudomonas fluorescens, under active predation by the amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum. The proposal utilizes genetic barcodes to track hundreds of bacterial lineages simultaneously as they evolve to reveal, in real time, the mutations and strategies that lead to survival. The proposal will also dive deeper and explore how some bacteria survive better in mixed populations than any single type does alone, suggesting a collective, population-level survival strategy. The researchers will test these defenses against amoebae with specific sensory or feeding deficits to map which bacterial strategy defeats which predatory tool and evaluate whether wild amoeba strains can team to overcome acquired bacterial defenses. If successful, this research will provide fundamental insight into microbial evolution and a new lens on how emerging pathogens acquire their abilities to combat eukaryotic cells. Potential implications of this research include understanding how a future pathogen evades the human immune system since the cellular machinery amoebae use to engulf and kill bacteria closely resembles the machinery of human immune cells. The SAB showed enthusiasm for this proposal and noted that the clever pairing of a “prey” expert and a “predator” expert offers complementary expertise that will drive the research forward.
Thomas Mallouk, Ph.D., principal investigator and the Vagelos Professor in Energy Research in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, and Andrew Rappe, Ph.D., co-investigator and the Blanchard Professor of Chemistry in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Pennsylvania, for “The Search for Solid-State Hydroxide Ion Conductors.” This research seeks to discover and study new solid-state hydroxide ion (OH-) conductors. This proposal is borne out of the researchers’ recent discovery of OH- conductivity in silver oxide (Ag2O), a crystalline compound that has been known for over 200 years. Ionic conductivity in Ag2O arises from a dynamic mechanism that is often encountered in transition metal catalysis but has previously been unseen in crystalline solids. This research project is organized around the question of whether Ag2O is unique, or if other structurally and electronically similar materials might have similar properties as ionic conductors. The proposal combines large crystallographic database searches with accurate computational simulations of OH- transport in metal oxides. This research has implications in the discovery of more robust and efficient materials for renewable energy conversion and storage. The SAB noted that the proposed experiments are well positioned to produce meaningful results and that the complementary expertise of the PI pair is highly synergistic for an interplay between theory and experiment.
Ribhu Kaul, Ph.D., principal investigator and professor in the Department of Physics at The Pennsylvania State University, and Bryce Gadway, Ph.D., co-investigator and professor in the Department of Physics at The Pennsylvania State University, for “Quantum Simulation of Three-Dimensional Critical Phenomena using Rydberg Atom Qubits.” This research proposes a path to harness the nascent technology of quantum simulation to solve problems in critical phenomena out of reach of simulations with only classical resources. Critical phenomena refer to the complex behaviors of materials during phase changes, such as the boiling of water at which liquid transforms into gas. Subtleties of critical phenomena have been elucidated by computer simulations of models that start from the atomistic view of materials, yet the answers to many pressing questions concerning three-dimensional critical phenomena are beyond reach of the largest supercomputers. This proposal takes an interdisciplinary approach by combining abstract theoretical physics with real world physics and engineering of qubit systems built in a lab from trapped atoms in highly excited “Rydberg” states. The SAB expressed excitement over the high-risk, high- reward nature of the proposal, with one reviewer saying that, “If successful, it would be the first realization of quantum simulation in 3-dimension, and of providing critical results to the field of CFT based on experimental data.”
Katie Barrott, Ph.D., principal investigator and associate professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Pennsylvania, and Colin Conine, Ph.D., co-investigator and assistant professor in the Department of Genetics at the University of Pennsylvania, for “Paternal Inheritance of Stress Resilience via the Sperm Epigenome in Cnidarians.” This research seeks to investigate sperm-mediated epigenetic inheritance in cnidarians, a phylum of animals that includes corals and sea anemones. This research is currently relevant because the rapid pace of global climate change demands that marine organisms adapt to a warming ocean at a speed that traditional genome evolution via natural selection simply cannot match. However, organisms also possess an accelerated pathway for responding to rapid environmental change known as epigenetic inheritance, a mechanism where information about environmental stress is passed from parent to offspring without changes to the underlying DNA sequence. Current epigenetic inheritance research focuses on the maternal role via the egg while the role of males has largely been dismissed due to the relatively small size and simple cellular structure of sperm cells compared to eggs. However, model systems have revealed that sperm carry special molecules called small RNAs that act as an inherited messaging system, dynamically tuning the offspring’s performance in response to the father’s environmental exposure. This research explores the significant biological mystery of whether this paternal transmission is a recent evolutionary innovation or is a foundational principle of animal biology. This proposal takes an interdisciplinary approach by braiding marine organismal biology with state-of-the-art molecular genetics. The SAB thought that the proposal did an excellent job in establishing a fundamental question that needs to be explored and succeeded in relating that to the real-world problems pertaining to the health of coral reefs.
Integrated Research-Education Grants support research that directly engages undergraduate students alongside innovative scientists. Two IREG grants of $100,000 over two years are awarded to:
Brett Aiello, Ph.D., principal investigator and assistant professor in the Department of Biology at Seton Hill University, and Jessica Brzyski, PhD., co-investigator and associate professor in the Department of Biology at Seton Hill University for “Discovering Generalizable Principles of Wing Sensory Feedback for Flight Control Through Undergraduate Research.” This research is the first comparative study in a biological system to determine how a fixed budget of sensors can be distributed to acquire the information (i.e. feedback) necessary for locomotor control and stability. Insect wings perform dual roles as both propulsors and sensors, using wing sensory feedback for effective locomotion and flight control. Despite the importance of sensory feedback, the functional significance of sensor placement is not well understood. Because sensors are energetically costly, the researchers hypothesize that sensors are only placed at wing locations corresponding to signals arising from perturbations that cannot be passively stabilized without active adjustment. Undergraduate students will test this hypothesis leveraging Bombycoid moths, a diverse group of agile flyers known for their variations in wing morphology and flight behavior. They will gain experience conducting research with electron microscopes and 3D modeling and animation software. Additionally, they will be engaged in coursework through an interdisciplinary vertically integrated project (VIP), a semester-long project in an ecology and evolution (EE) course that includes the collection of live moths, and the analysis of VIP and EE products in an advanced biostatistics course. This proposal will also support summer research internships and the dissemination of student products at the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology’s annual meeting.
Jessica Sowa, Ph.D., principal investigator and associate professor in the Department of Biology at West Chester University of Pennsylvania, for “Establishing a Nematode Model for Mucormycosis.” This research aims to build the foundational understanding needed to establish the nematode C. elegans together with the fungus Mucor hiemalis as a model system for accelerating research on mucormycosis. Mucormycosis is a type of invasive fungal infection caused by fungi belonging to the order Mucorales. These rare but serious fungal infections most commonly affect patients with a compromised immune system including diabetes patients, transplant recipients, and more recently, COVID-19 patients. Unfortunately, very few effective anti-fungal treatments for mucormycosis exist, in part because how these fungi interact with the cells and immune system of the hosts they infect is not well understood. A major impediment to the study of mucormycosis has been that the model systems currently available for these studies are not well suited for large-scale genetic screens or drug development. Based on a recent discovery by the Sowa lab, this proposal utilizes nematode C. elegans to establish a C. elegans-M. hiemalis model of mucormycosis. This fundamental science research proposal includes mapping the C. elegans immune response to Mucor infections using RNA sequencing and bioinformatics, then using a gene knockdown approach to identify C. elegans genes that are important for determining resistance/susceptibility to Mucor infections. Overall, the SAB praised the proposed project for its potential to have a large impact on the students that participate and noted the “beautiful” integration of the research and undergraduate coursework and experience.